“The Soul of All Living Creatures”
Evolution favors the wolf who focuses on what matters most: finding food, remaining healthy, resting, breeding, caring for young – not confronting and dominating others. The same is true for all species.
Several weeks ago, the New York Times Magazine published “Zoo Animals And Their Discontents,” an article about Dr. Vint Virga, a veterinarian and animal behaviorist who tends to the psychological welfare of animals in captivity. Virga is to zoo animals what Freud, Frankl, and Jung were to humans. So, when an animal in captivity displays anxiety, depression, phobias, obsessive-compulsive behavior and other maladies, Virga is called in to diagnose and treat the afflicted animal. Read more 
“The Brothers”
One way to bring Americans to reflect on their past – and future – would be to revive memory of the Dulles brothers. Their actions frame the grand debate over America’s role in the world that has never been truly joined in the United States.
“My Struggle: Book 2”
At the age of forty the life you have lived so far, always pro tem, has for the first time become life itself, and this reappraisal swept away all dreams, destroyed all your notions that real life, the one that was meant to be, the great deeds you would perform, was somewhere else. When you were forty you realized it was all here, banal everyday life, fully formed, and it always would be unless you did something. Unless you took one last gamble.
Karl Ove Knausgaard – a Norwegian living in Sweden, nearing 40, on his second marriage with three children under the age of 4 – finds himself joyless, overwhelmed with the demands of marriage and fatherhood. A lifelong reader and writer, Knausgaard has also lost faith in literature and turns to his personal diaries and essays for inspiration. From those writings, two elements that shaped his life – his father and a lifelong feeling of not belonging – lead him to write My Struggle: a 6-volume autobiography published between 2009-2012 in Norway. Read more
“My Struggle: Book 1”
My father was an idiot, I wanted nothing to do with him, and it cost me nothing to keep well away from him. It wasn’t a question of keeping away from something, it was a question of the something not existing; nothing about him touched me. That was how it had been, but then I had sat down to write, and the tears poured forth.
In Norway, revealing personal information and family secrets is considered shameful so when Karl Ove Knausgaard, the award-winning, best-selling author wrote a 6 volume autobiographical account of his life, the public took notice, read the critics’ reviews but ultimately decided to buy the books. Read more
“The Little Friend”
…it was Christmas, there was a new baby in the house, everybody was happy and thought they would be happy forever.
Harriet Cleve Dufresnes had just entered the world as the third child of Charlotte and Dixon Cleve. Four months later, while baby Harriett was strapped in her swing on the front porch with her 4-year old sister, Allison playing nearby, 9-year old Robin was found hung from the tupelo tree in the front yard while the rest of the family was in the house setting up the table for a Mother’s Day celebration. No one saw or heard a thing. Read more
“Niki: The Story of a Dog”
Affection is not only a pleasure for the heart but also a burden which, in proportion to its importance, may oppress the soul quite as much as it rejoices it.
Long before books like Marley or The Art of Racing in the Rain appeared on bookshelves, a book entitled Niki: The Story of a Dog was written in Hungarian by Tibor Déry and published in 1956, shortly before the October Uprising, a nationwide revolt against the Soviet-controlled government in Hungary. In the years following World War II, Hungary underwent massive political changes and it is these changes the reader sees through the eyes of the narrator who tells the story of a middle-aged couple who adopt a street dog named Niki. The story begins in the Spring of 1948 and ends six years later in 1954. Read more
6 Indie Bookstores to Patronize NOW
A quiet battle between Amazon (the behemoth bookseller) and Hachette (the giant book publisher) has been waging on for years but the lid was blown off this past week by a combination of factors that many observers are predicting will lead to the The War To End All Wars in Bookville.
At the 2014 Book Expo of America (the largest annual book trade fair) in New York City, a few brave authors spoke out against the giant retailer for its strong-arm tactics of notifying customers that pre-orders of books published by Hachette are no longer being accepted. In addition, Amazon notified customers of delays in book shipments and that certain books by authors whose works are published by Hachette are not available, bringing the industry issues to the public’s attention. But, I am getting ahead of myself so let’s take a step back.
“Life and Times of Michael K”
The Life and Times of Michael K was written more than 30 years ago (1983) by J.M. Coetzee and yet, the story is as relevant today as decades ago. Freedom from both persecution and charity are the overriding themes of this fictional story that takes place in South Africa when the minority Black South Africans were fighting against apartheid during a civil war. The years are irrelevant as the timeframe could be any decade and any place where there is one set of rules for the majority in power and another set for the oppressed minority class. Read more
“What You’ve Been Missing”
Never judge a book by its cover…..
The cover art of What You’ve Been Missing is a painting by Roger Brown called It’s a Wonderful Lie and is as telling as the short story collection written by Janet Desaulniers. A rectangular piece of art divided into eight sections, It’s a Wonderful Lie depicts life as we live and the impending disaster ahead: we come together and marry; we divorce and part; we enjoy a drive in a convertible and unexpectedly get hit by a truck; we run our businesses and we go to jail; and finally, we exercise and strengthen our bodies only to succumb to death. Read more
“Vegan Chocolate”
If someone told you a chocolate dessert could be unapologetically luscious, decadent and dairy-free, would you believe her? Fran Costigan, author, baking instructor, and vegan chocolate extraordinaire said just that and I really wanted to believe her but I had my doubts because most vegan chocolate desserts don’t taste as rich and scrumptious as those made with butter, cream, and eggs. How could they? Butter, like chocolate makes nearly everything taste better. But they can, and they do in a new cookbook called Vegan Chocolate. Read more
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